Wow. That's inspiring stuff. Do you feel the tingle ? I know I do. At least I think it's a tingle. It could just be acid reflux. I'm not sure, but I'm ready to cast aside all my fears, doubts, and independent thought processes, because this election is historic, the most important election in the ENTIRE HISTORY OF MANKIND, the most important election held in the known universe, ever. We must discard those "outworn ideas of the left and right" (and instead embrace only the outworn ideas of the left), because the only way we can achieve "unity" is to stop arguing over petty matters, such as the role of the federal government, federal taxation and spending, the economy, the U.S. Constitution, and so forth. Those things are not really important. What IS important is to blindly follow our "better angels", as embodied by Barack Obama, the new Messiah. How else can he deliver us from this mean, third world hellhole we call the United States of America ? How else will we ever take our place among the righteous nations of the earth, like Venezuela ? The old ways, the ways designed by our Founding Fathers, clearly do not work. Yes, those frayed and threadbare concepts promoted by the likes of Thomas Jefferson, James Madision, and George Washington may have resulted in America becoming the world's pre-eminent superpower, the world's beacon of liberty, hope, and opportunity, and the creation of 30% of the world's wealth by only 5% of it's people, but c'mon folks, life is not a totally carefree utopian paradise here, there are still problems, so we need drastic CHANGE, a change that only a Messiah who promises to "change the world" (not kidding, The Big O really said that) can bring.

This presidential election is about the future direction of our country. It is a referendum on what type of country we want in America. There are fundamental differences between the progressive (Obama/Biden) view and the conservative (McCain/Palin) view. As I see it, the differences are fairly stark, and are illustrated clearly by looking at tax policy. The progressives view tax policy as a moral issue, to be used to implement social change. Therefore they favor higher taxes on the wealthy to "spread the wealth around" to the less wealthy, as Obama puts it. It is a redistributive policy. Conservatives, on the other hand, view tax policy more as an economic calculation, to be used to stimulate the overall economy in the best possible manner. Conservatives feel economic growth is best accomplished by keeping taxes low for everyone, and in McCain's case, lowering tax rates for business and capital gains to create jobs and growth.

It is only natural to consider progressive tax policy as more socialist in nature, and to consider conservative tax policy as more individualist in nature. When you look at the economic state of our country, with $700 billion bailouts for the financial industry, a $165 billion stimulus package being passed, another $300 billion stimulus package being proposed by the Democrats, the federal government buying up shares of the largest banks in the nation, bailouts for automobile manufacturers, $53 trillion in unfunded entitlement liabilities, $10 trillion in national debt....

Today, I'm going to print a newspaper column by Orson Scott Card in it's entirety. Card is a Democrat, and is brutally honest about the sorry state of so-called journalism in this country. He says what I've been trying to say about our pathetic media, but he says it better than I could. Everybody should read this in order to discover how badly the mainstream media is misleading America.

The NY Times endorsed Obama ? What a shocker. This is almost as unexpected as the old headline proclaiming 'John Wilkes Booth Hates Abraham Lincoln'. Sure didn't see that coming. The Times released this non-bombshell on it's internet site. Here's the Times' reasoning, according to Yahoo:

As we all know, our economy is in recession. Our businesses are being threatened due to a credit freeze, and unemployment is rising. Our government is spending trillions of dollars it doesn't have, which devalues the dollar. Banks teeter on the edge of collapse. Our automakers are losing money. The airline industry is barely surviving. Jobs are moving overseas. We have lost millions of jobs. The picture is pretty bleak.

John McCain's response is to cut the business income tax rate from 35% to 25%, to make our businesses more competitive. Reasonable. This is a job creating measure. After all, without jobs, it doesn't much matter what other financial steps our government takes, because without jobs, wealth and revenue will not be generated. Without jobs, Americans will have nothing. Without jobs, poverty will rise. Without jobs, the government itself will not be funded at adequate levels. Without jobs, we fail as a society.

If Barack Obama wins the presidency in november, and the Democrats maintain control of both houses of Congress, there will be a massive ideological shift in government. Not just Democrats, but LIBERAL Democrats, will run the whole show. This hasn't been seen since the days of FDR or LBJ, who gave us the New Deal and Great Society policies, respectively. I suggest that Obama come up with a name for his policies, like FDR and LBJ did. Since The One hasn't done that yet, I have some suggestions of my own. I think BO should call his economic scheme AMERICA - THE NEW FRANCE, or maybe SOCIALISM FOR DUMMIES. How about a THOUSAND POINTS OF LEFT ?----Obama's pet media has descended upon poor Joe the plumber like a pack of snarling wolves, and have torn through his personal life. Just like they did to Sarah Palin. Does this say anything about what an Obama presidency would be like ? Will the media help to silence Obama critics by mischaracterizing or exaggerating their words, as they have during this campaign ? Will they cover up and/or ignore Obama's mistakes, as they have during this campaign ? John McCain had it right when he said, “Americans ought to be able to ask Senator Obama tough questions without being smeared and targeted with political attacks.” Yes, they certainly should, but that isn't the world we live in. The media thinks it's job is to discredit anybody who criticizes their hero. ---Speaking of the media trying to discredit people, remember the left wing rage the media generated when they reported that a member of the crowd at a Palin campaign stop allegedly yelled out "kill him", which was allegedly directed toward Obama ? That led lots of Democrats to make allegations of racism toward the GOP. Obama even brought it up in the last presidential debate. It was supremely stupid to color McCain, Palin, and the GOP as racist due to a couple random shout-outs from the crowd in the first place, but as it turns out, the original charge isn't even true. Nobody at the Palin rally yelled out "kill him." The Secret Service reviewed the tapes, and concluded what was shouted out at one rally was "tell him", not "kill him", and at another rally the Secret Service said no comment anything like "kill him" was made (link). I can't wait for all the forthcoming apologies from the media, Democrats, and Obama. Not that they will ever come. ---In my last post, I contended that McCain won the third presidential debate decisively. Two new polls came out yesterday. An AP poll had it Obama 44, McCain 42. A Gallup poll of registered voters had it Obama 46, McCain 44. Other polls have Obama further ahead, but they weren't done after the debate. The new polls show McCain closing the gap. Sounds like McCain got a debate bump to me. You don't do that by losing.--- The unintentionally hilarious Democratic VP candidate, Joe Biden, appeared on the NBC Today Show, talking about Joe the plumber. Biden said "I don't know any Joe the plumbers in my neighborhood who make over $250,000. The Joe the plumbers in my neighborhood, the Joe the cops in my neighborhood, the Joe the grocery store owners in my neighborhood...they make less than $250,000 a year."

FYI - Joe Biden lives on a $3 million compound. There AREN'T any plumbers, cops, or small grocery store owners living in Biden's neighborhood.

If any of you read my last post, called A Deficit Disorder, you probably know my feelings regarding our federal government's economic policies range somewhere between cynical and disgusted. Lately, with mob boss

I'm sick and tired of hearing our D.C. politicians talking about when it's "okay" to run federal deficits. They all come up with some excuse to do it, or if they pretend to address the issue, they come up with some 5-10 year plan to balance the budget the year AFTER their presidential term ends. Yet, we keep putting these same con men in office over and over. I think it was 2003 when I first heard George W. Bush say it was "okay" to run a deficit (more federal spending than federal revenue) during either a war or a recession. Conveniently for Bush, he inherited a recession and started two wars, so, voila!, he could spend to his heart's delight, and he did, running deficit after deficit. Now, we have both Bush and the Democratic-led Congress jumping on board the deficit train, because we have another, voila!, recession, brought on by the financial crisis. Calling what's going on now in D.C. the "deficit train" is a severe understatement. It's really more like the deficit supersonic jet. After we end up spending a couple trillion beyond our means to fix the financial crisis brought on by living beyond our means (does the word "ironic" even have meaning any more ?), where will we be ? All the same deficit problems we had before will still exist, only worse. The deficits will be much larger. Now, add our two presidential candidates to the mix, Barack Obama (D) and John McCain (R), both of whom's economic plans are projected to add trillions more to the federal deficit in their first term by independent analysts. That means by 2012, our current federal debt of $10 trillion will explode up to $13-14 trillion. And the $53 trillion in unfunded entitlement liabilities will still be there, rolling in like a tsunami to sweep away our country's future.

As I mentioned in my last post, some Democrats are seeing all kinds of imaginary racial codespeak in the words of John McCain and Sarah Palin. So I have to ask those same Democrats, are the following words from Barack Obama an example of that same racial codespeak ? And if not, why not ?

A couple minutes after congratulating McCain for toning down his rhetoric, Obama warned that people shouldn't be "hoodwinked" or "bamboozled" by McCain.

When Democrat Barney Frank started taking some heat (though not nearly enough yet) for being one of the prime enablers of the mortgage crisis by sinking any regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and by pushing banks to eliminate loan standards in order to increase home ownership, Mr. Frank found the true culprits. It isn't Barney Frank, oh no. Even though his efforts may well sink the entire world economy, Barney Frank still won't admit to any blame. Instead, he pins blame on his favorite whipping boys, those racist Republicans. Quoting Mr. Frank at a mortgage foreclosure symposium in Boston:

Senators Barack Obama and John McCain hooked up for another presidential debate last night in Tennessee. This one was moderated by liberal Democrat Tom Brokaw from the pro-Obama network NBC, in contrast to the first debate, which was moderated by liberal Democrat Gwen Ifill from the pro-Obama network PBS. At least Brokaw isn't writing a book subtitled "The Age Of Obama." I'm not sure who will be moderating the third and final debate next week, but in the interests of fairness and balance, I'd suggest someone like Keith Olbermann from the left wing network MS-NBC, or maybe Obama's spokesman, Bill Burton. I'm sure any Democrat will suffice. Except for a Blue Dog.

Tom Brokaw made sure that this so-called townhall meeting was just one more boilerplate debate filled with the same old stock questions. It was designed to introduce nothing much new, and therefore was less likely to lead to any major gaffes or shakeups. The advantage in such a status quo scenario goes to the person who is already leading in the polls. And wouldn't you know, that person just so happens to be Barack Obama.

I was sitting around the cave last night, wondering 'What is it that some people see in Barack Obama that I don't see ?' Why don't I get that tingle up my leg when Obama speaks ? Why can't I see that he is The Messiah, The One, The Once And Future King ? With a name like Da King, I should be able to recognize the KING, shouldn't I ?

The Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Chris Dodd (D-CT), has NO idea how the mortgage crisis happened. I repeat, he is the CHAIRMAN OF THE SENATE BANKING COMMITTEE !!! Dodd says, "American taxpayers are angry and they demand to know how we arrived at this moment."